Blade holder



May 16, 1961 R. v. MINTON 2,984,003

BLADE HOLDER Filed Sept. 2, 1959 A Ilya/916;,-

United States Patent O BLADE HOLDER Ronald V. Minton, 333 Clay` St., LosAngeles 13, Calif.

Filed Sept. 2, 1959, Ser. No. 837,663

Claims. (Cl. 30-162) The present invention relates to a holder for asingle'- edged razor blade, from which the blade may be completelyremoved for use as a scraper, or partially removed for cutting purposes,and which protects the cutting edge of the blade from damage.

One object of the invention is to provide a razor blade holder of theabove type which is small and compact, cheap to manufacture, and easy touse.

Another object of the invention is to provide a razor blade holder ofthe above type which safely and securely retains the blade when not inuse.

A further object of the invention is to provide a blade holder of theabove type which operates as a sturdy, convenient handle when the bladeis partially extended therefrom for cutting purposes.

The above and other advantages of the invention will be more readilyapparent from the following description when considered in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawing, in which: y

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the invention with the blade inpartially extended position;

Figure 2 is a plan view of the invention showing the blade in carryingposition;

Figure 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the blade;

Figure 4 is an enlarged plan view of the invention without the blade;

Figure 5 is a side or elevational view of the holder of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary end view of the Aholder of Figure 4;

Figure 7 is a still further enlarged cross-sectional view of theinvention with the blade confined therein, taken on the line 7-7 ofFigure 2; and

Figure 8 is a plan view of an alternate form of the invention.

According to the basic concept of the invention a flat, substantiallyrectangular case member is provided .with upwardly extending andinwardly curved side walls adapted to loosely receive the opposing edgesof the blade. The blade is, therefore, longitudinally slideable withinthe confines of the case member. A spring member or guide means islongitudinally disposed within the case member and serves twosignificant functions. One of these functions is to frictionally retainthe blade within the case member when not in use. The other significantfunction is to' guide the blade, during its sliding movement into or outof the case member, so as to protect the cutting edge of the blade frombeing damaged by contact with the corresponding side wall of the casemember.

Figures 1 through 7 of the drawing illustrate the presently preferredform of the invention, as well as the manner of its use with a bladedesignated as A. The case member of the invention is designatedgenerally as B, while the spring member or guide means is designated asC. l

Blade A is a flat rectangular blade having one longitudinal edge 10sharpened as a cutting edge while the Patented May 16, 1961 opposinglongitudinal edge 11 is adapted for gripping purposes. Cutting edge 10is sharpened on both sides thereof to a symmetrical sharp point.Gripping edge y11 is provided with a U-shaped stilener member 12 whichis firmly bonded to both sides of the blade and extends throughout theentire length of the blade. It will be seen that blade A is of a typewhich is readily usable both for cutting purposes and for scrapingpurposes, and which therefore finds many industrial applications.

Case member B has a at base portion 15 which is somewhat wi-der andsomewhat longer than blade A. Parallel side walls 16 and 17 extendupwardly from the base portion 15, and are turned inwardly at 18 and 19,respectively. The turned-in portions of the side walls leave a spacewhich is somewhat less than the width of blade A. At the same time theheight of, and horizontal spacing between, the vertical side wallportions is suflicient to confine the blade therebetween. In the absenceof spring member or guide means C, the side walls of the case memberwould provide a relatively loose t for the corresponding blade edges.

Spring member or guide means C is an elongate metallic strip whichextends for most of the length of case member B. The ltwo ends of springmember C engage base portion 15 of the case member B, while itsmidsection is bowed upwardly, as best seen in Figure 5. Spring member Cis preferably made of spring steel so as to'provide a strong springaction, It therefore pushes blade A upwardly, as viewed in Figure 7, sothat blade edge 11 frictionally engages the undersurface of side wall 18while blade edge 10 frictionally engages the undersurface of side wall19. It will be noted that the cutting point of cutting edge l10 does notengage vertical side wall portion 17, but rather that the upper surfaceof the blade adjacent cutting edge 10 engages the substantiallyhorizontal undersurface of the turned over Wall portion 19.

Spring member or guide means C also performs a guidance function incooperation with stiffener portion 12 of blade A for preventing damageto the cutting edge 10. As seen in Figure 4 spring member C is generallyspaced away from Wall 17, 19 but is nevertheless provided at its twoends with outwardly projecting tabs 26, 27, which do engage verticalwall portion 17. The total width of spring member C measured transverseto the case member B is slightly greater than the width of blade Ameasured from cutting edge 10 to the nearest edge of stiifener member12. A shown in Figure 7 the longitudinal edge of that portion ofstilfener member 12 lying beneath blade A engages the adjacentlongitudinal edge 28 of spring member C, or at least, its movementtoward side wall 17 is limited by the position of the edge 28 of springmember C. It therefore follows that, when blade A is sliding into or outof case member B, cuting edge 10 is inhibited from engaging side wall17, and is thus protectedfrom damage.

In the preferred form of the invention as illustrated, case member B hasone end which is squared olf while at its other end the base member 15extends to form a rounded or V-shaped protrusion 121. Spring member Cextends longitudinally so that it is substantially coterminous withprotrusion 21, and a rivet 23 is utilized to securely fasten the twoends of the members together. As shown in Figure 5 rivet 23 extendsupwardly higher than the side Walls, hence it acts as a stop forinhibiting the removal of blade A from that end of case B.

When blade A is in firm contact with rivet 23 its opposite end fallswell within ,the end of case member B. The turned-over wall portion 19near its end opposite rivet 23 is cut away at 19a, and its remainingextremity 19b is depressed slightly downwardly as shown in Figure 6.Projection 19b acts as a stop for removing the blade from the casemember, since spring member C at all times urges the blade upwardly.However, by squeezing the blade and case member together the springmember C is flattened sutiiciently so that the blade can clear the stop19, and be slidably moved out of the end of the case member opposite theend where rivet 23 is located.

It will be appreciated that rivet 23 is not necessary since springmember C may be secured to case member B by other means, such as spotwelding. Also, although the rounded protrusion 2l is convenient andcomfortable for manual gripping of the invention when the blade is in acutting position as illustrated in Figure l, it will nevertheless beIappreciated that it is not an indispensable feature ofthe invention.

Spring member C is preferably made of stainless steel of such a qualityas to provide a strong spring action, but aluminum or other materialsmay be used if desired. Case member B is also preferably made ofstainless steel although other metals r even plastic may be used. Whilecase member B and spring member C are preferably made separately becauseof the different quality of material desired, it is neverthelesspossible to fashion them integrally from a single piece of metal, byusing a long flat piece and folding part of it back upon itself toprovide the spring member C.

The holder of the present invention may if desired be made of doublelength so as to accommodate two blades in end-to-end relationship. Thesame manner of construction may be used, with both the case member B andspring member C being made longer by the length of one blade.

Reference is now made to Figure 8 illustrating an alternate form of theinvention. As shown in Figure 8 a single flat piece of metal 30 lmay beused to :form the holder of the invention by first turning thelongitudinal edges 31 and 32 upwardly and inwardly in the mannerpreviously described. Thereafter, the work piece is cut yalong a line33, which extends parallel to the side walls throughout most of thelength of the piece, and near the Opposite ends of the work pieceextends transversely toward one of the side walls. Thereafter, theportion 34 of the work piece which lies within the cutting line 33 isbent or deformed upwardly, in the same direction as the side walls, soas to provide a spring member or guide means in accordance with theinvention.

It will be understood that the spring member or guide means need not bein the form of an elongated metal strip as shown in Figures 1 to 7, norin the form shown in Figure 8, so long as the purposes of the inventionare required. It is not necessary that the spring action and the guidingaction be provided by the same member, so long as the guiding member andthe case member are flexibly or springably mounted in a suitable mannerwith respect to each other.

Other forms and modifications of my invention will be readily apparentto those skilled in the art.

What I claim is:

1. A blade holder for a rectangular, single-edged razor blade of thetype having a thickened stiffener portion on the longitudinal edgethereof opposite its cutting edge, said blade holder comprising, incombination: a ilat case member on whose longitudinal edges are formedparallel side walls which extend upwardly and then inwardly, said casemember being adapted to longitudinally slidably receive said blade withsaid blade edges being loosely confined by said side walls; and guidemeans extending longitudinally of said case member between said sidewalls and slidably engaging the under surface of said blade and theinner edge of said thickened blade portion for restricting saidthickened blade portion to a position adjacent one of said side walls soas to inhibit said cutting edge of said blade from engaging the upwardlyextending portion of the other side wall; said guide means and casemember being flexibly supported with respect to each other so that saidguide means exerts an upward force on said blade for normallymaintaining said blade edges in frictional engagement with the undersurface of said inwardly turned side wall portions and so that saidfrictional engagement may be released by the application of pressure tothe upper surface of said blade.

2. A blade hol-der as dened in claim 1 in which said guide meanscomprises an elongate, flexible metallic strip having boths its ends inengagement with said case member and its mid-section bowed upwardlytherefrom.

3. A blade holder `as defined in claim 2 which includes a rivetfastening one end of said metallic strip to the corresponding end ofsaid case member, said rivet also providing a stop for inhibitingremoval of the blade from said corresponding end of said case member.

4. A blade holder as defined in claim 3 in which one of said inwardlyturned side wall portions has a downwardly projecting portion providinga stop at the other end of said case member for normally inhibitingremoval of the blade, the blade being removable past said last-namedstop by squeezing the blade and said case member together so as toHatten said metallic strip.

5. A blade holder for a rectangular, single-edged blade of the typehaving a thickened longitudinal edge portion opposite its cutting edge,which provides a longitudinal shoulder, said blade holder comprising, incombination: a at case member whose longitudinal edges are turnedupwardly and inwardly to provide parallel side walls with inwardlyextending upper edges, said case member being adapted to longitudinallyslidably receive said blade with said blade edges being loosely connedby said side walls; and an elongated at spring member longitudinallydisposed within said case member, the distance between one side Wall andthe furthest longitudinal edge of said spring member being slightlygreater than the width of said blade measured between its cutting edgeand said shoulder; said spring member being flexed upwardly in the planeof said side walls so as to engage one at surface of said blade forforcing the cutting edge portion and the thickened edge portion of theopposite surface of said blade into frictional engagement with theundersurfaces of the inwardly extending edge portions of said one sidewall and the other side wall, respectively.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,948,623 Louderback Feb. 27, 1934 2,086,210 Brown July 6, 19372,285,155 Frost June 2, 1942 2,397,444 Stern Mar. 26, 1946 2,526,867Hitchcock Oct. 24, 1950 2,548,797 lIngwer et al Apr. 10, 1951

